[Watch the video interview on Youtube here]
Film Courage: What’s your creative process like when you’re developing a new comic book?
Stephen L. Stern, Comic Book Author/President of Storyboard Graphic Novels: Again, it’s very specific to the creator. Every great comic book I feel just came full-blown out of the mind of whether it’s a writer or an artist (some people are writer/artists, there are few and far between), but it’s really just your vision, probably the same thing as writing a prose novel. You have to have confidence in your idea, a true passion and belief that what you write must get down on paper or electronically.
I couldn’t really give you a road map as to how I do it. A lot of stuff comes to you in dreams. A lot of people in the creative process say their subconscious is preeminent and it probably is.
Film Courage: Do you use the same formula for every comic book?
Steve: No, every comic book has its own internal formula. In addition to Zen [Intergalactic Ninja], I’ve done other books that I’ve created like the Frickin’ Butt-Kickin’ Zombie Ants which couldn’t be further from Zen or some of the other books I’ve created over the years. Everything is just you get an idea and Oh, this will be a fun thing to do and maybe it’s an over-the-top comedy like the Frickin’ Butt-Kickin’ Zombie Ants that book came about because I had been reading on the internet that zombie ants are real. These are ants who get infected by a parasite and it ultimately turns them into zombies and kills them. So I’m reading this on the internet zombie ants and I say How can this not be a comic book? I had to add “frickin’ butt kick” into it and that couldn’t be further from Zen, very dissimilar idea.
I’ve also written adaptations of classics. I wrote a Beowulf graphic novel. I’ve written A Christmas Carol graphic novel. Those two were published…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
About:
Stephen L. Stern is the president of Storyboard Graphic Novels. Steve is best known as the creator/writer of the indie comic-book Zen Intergalactic Ninja that has sold over three million comics and graphic novels and been licensed for video games, action figures and numerous other products. He is also the creator of Shygirl and Frickin’ Butt-Kickin’ Zombie Ants, and the author of Beowulf: The Graphic Novel and the A Christmas Carol Graphic Novel, both published by the UK’s Markosia. His other works include Alien Hero, a collection of novellas and stories about Zen, and the upcoming Majestic Comics Graphic Novel. Stern is a native of New York and former advertising agency president with clients including Johnson & Johnson, Rosenthal China and The Singer Company. He lives in Los Angeles, where he launched Storyboard Graphic Novels in 2011, working with several of his longtime friends and associates—who just happen to be some of the highest-profile artists and writers in the industry today.
BUY THE BOOK – A Christmas Carol (A graphic novel)
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